This invention relates to electronic devices for executing game algorithms. More specifically, the invention relates to a two player game apparatus.
An electronic game device has three basic requirements. The first requirement is that the electronic device receives an input from a person who is playing the game. If two or more people are playing the game, the electronic device must have capability to receive the inputs from these additional game players. The second requirement is that the electronic device must provide output information to inform the player or players of the player status and of the game status. The third requirement is that the electronic device must actually execute the game algorithm.
Electronic game devices that use one microprocessor may encounter disadvantages. A single microprocessor device would not allow both players to play the game simultaneously. Rather using a single microprocessor device, the microprocessor must scan one player's input for input data and at a later time, scan the second player's input for the input data. Thus the second player cannot input information while the microprocessor is reading input data from the first player. In games involving a player's reaction time, this disadvantage would prevent the second player from responding quickly to the first player's actions. In addition, if the game device includes individual player status displays and an overall game status display. A single microprocessor would not be allowed to simultaneously update player displays and game displays at the same time. Furthermore, the single processor would not be able to read the input data and provide output data at the same time that the microprocessor is executing the game algorithm. Therefore, the simultaneous game playing capabilities of a single processor gaming device is limited.
If two or more microprocessors are used, some of the above-mentioned problems would be solved but other difficulties may be encountered. One problem encountered when instructing a game playing device wth two or more microprocessors is interfacing the two microprocessors. This type of problem is the same problem in interfacing any type of processor network and requires the device designer to determine how data is transferred between microprocessors, partitioning of the input/output functions between microprocessors and determining which microprocessor performs the supervision function over the game device. In effect, the additional microprocessors require not only additional software for the extra microprocessor, but also the additional software for the interface of the microprocessors.
The invention disclosed herein avoids many of the above-mentioned problems by disclosing a multiprocessor system that can share the same semiconductor chip.